The expression of identity can take many forms ranging from the everyday life to a more active expression. For the minorities, this term may become more complicated due to the reaction of the majority who can tolerate or condemn the minority expression of identity. Thus, the expression of identity of the minority can move from one passive phase to an active one in the face of societal or legal restrictions. It can also become a reactionary expression if the majority oppression intensifies. This article explores these three phases of expression based on concrete examples.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Beyond Boundaries:

Media, Culture and Identity in Europe

2-3 October 2009, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey

What is Europe according to its others? An essence, an origin, a center? Or is it nothingness, a void or chiasm? Where is Europe? In diasporic or migrant spaces? How is Europe different from the West? Can an identity be made European? Could it be Eurocentric or Euro-chiasmic? Can one leave one’s cultural frame to take on another? Can one transnationalize and/or regionalize a national identity or vice versa? Can the European Union create a single entity or a grand signifier of Europe out of multiple differences? What is the role of communication, media, and culture in such exchanges, transformations, processes and practices? Can we account for the similarities, proximities, and relations or should we focus on the differences, cleavages, and tensions?

This conference aims to explore the questions above and how such questions surface in media and cultural texts, ranging from everyday practices to media representations. The papers may deal with various meanings of Europe and its relation to non-European cultures, and how these are experienced or altered at the level of media, culture, and identity. Possible paper topics are:

Eurocentrism and its alternatives

Transnationalism and nationalisms

Global, regional, and local media and culture

Diasporic and migrant culture and identities

Gender equality and cultural diversity

Tactics and strategies of dialogue between cultures

Symbolic representations of Europe in various cultural practices

Theories of European cinema, media and culture

Challenges for European cinema, media, and cultural studies

European communication studies and strategies

The EU policies on media, communication, and culture

Confirmed Keynote Speakers (alphabetically listed):

Emine Bozkurt ( Member of the European Parliament for the PvdA ), member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee ; member of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality ; member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Turkey ; substitute member of the Culture and Education Committee ; Vice-Chair of the Diversity and Integration Network for the Socialist Group .

Prof. Angela McRobbie (University of London, Goldsmiths College, Media and Communications) author of Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries, forthcoming (2010); Feminist Cultural Studies: Essays on Post-Feminist Aesthetics , Literature and Popular Culture, forthcoming (2010); The Aftermath of Feminism : Gender, Culture and Social Change (2008); The Uses of Cultural Studies (2005); In the Culture Society (1999); British Fashion Design (1998).

Prof. Kevin Robins (Based in Istanbul and a visiting fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London) author of Times of the Technoculture: From the Information Society to the Virtual Life (1999); Into the Image: Culture and Politics in the Field of Vision (1996); Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries (co-author, 1995).

The conference is organized by an EU funded project, “European Media and Cultural Studies and Media Awareness,” jointly run by Bahcesehir University (Istanbul, Turkey), University of Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany) and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany).

Please note: There is no fee for the conference registration.

The language of the conference is English.

If you have further questions about the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us. E-Mail: Aysegul Kesirli (conference assistant) Phone: +90 (212) 381 0764

The Center for Media, Religion and Culture
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado, Boulder

The events of September 11, 2001 have unleashed an unprecedented period of global re-thinking of issues in media and religion. Islam has emerged as a major focus of inquiry and debate, but the interaction between contemporary Islam and the media has rarely been addressed. This conference will thus engage a set of questions on the place of Islam within global, regional, national and local media.

If we believe the torrent of popular headlines on Islam today, it seems that only Muslim extremists are talking about their religion, pursuing a project that claims to defend it from “secularized” Western culture. From Bin Laden’s call to jihad to the angry reaction of Muslims to the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Muslims are portrayed in the media as irrational followers of a religion adamantly out of step with modernity. In the face of this, and perhaps in order to balance their coverage of Islam, Western journalists, pundits, and others have been asking “where are the moderate Muslims?” But few true moderates have emerged. Instead, some Western media have turned to another extreme: Muslim secularists or “Muslim non-believers”–voices which deserve media attention, but which arguably stand at the opposite fringe, rather than nearer the center of how Islam is lived and understood today.

The Power of Images
German-Turkish Relation as Focus of Media Responsibility

Our understanding of reality is mainly stamped by images spread through the media. The Turkish image in Germany as well as the German image in Turkey depends on what articles and reports are being published. Due to the impact the media has on the German-Turkish relationship, its responsibility is significant.The event’s aim is to illustrate what images the media creates of the other. What topics are reported about and how are they conveyed to the public? Where are the critical points, and what are their backgrounds? The objective is to emphasize the significance of the media’s responsibility and thus contribute to an enhanced German-Turkish understanding.